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Both sides know they're in the dog house
Both sides know they're in the dog
house now
By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Dec. 1, 1998
The good news is the full NBA negotiating teams will meet Thursday
morning.
Some people may think it isn't a good thing that everything now will start
from scratch. All the movement of shared income percentages has vanished
and the bruised egos from the cancellation of last weekend's meetings will
have to mend.
Commissioner David Stern, deputy Russ Granik, their lead counsels and
some owners will meet union
executive director Billy Hunter,
president Patrick Ewing, other
players and their lead counsels.
"At least," one NBA source said,
"they're meeting. I feel frozen in time
on Sept. 1. I can't even believe it's
December and these two groups
haven't come close to a deal. They're
both at fault. I realize it's December
only because I had a big turkey
dinner last Thursday, but I can't
believe what this is doing to
basketball."
BY ALL LOGIC AND THE HOPES OF RETAINING the 50-game season
Stern said he wanted as a minimum, the new collective bargaining
agreement must be agreed to by the end of next week or the 1998-99 NBA
season will be shot. The players already have lost $300 million from the $1
billion worth of salaries they were to receive this season. The owners are
already well into their $800 million-plus contract with Turner and just a
double-header from NBC so far, but they'll have to pay back all the revenues
they're receiving now during the four-year term of the contract.
Confusing? Obnoxious. It's all of the above. The best idea yet is to set up a
40-game season, then seed the top 16 teams and play a single-elimination
playoff like the NCAA Tournament. It would be incredibly exciting and people
would get into it. Right now, it's to the point that this year's product is
all but
ruined.
One great idea spun out there was to announce it as Michael Jordan's
farewell season. That's all well and good for the games the Chicago Bulls
play. So will any other team sell out unless they're playing the Bulls?
Probably not. Most teams are in a state of utter chaos. Getting an
agreement is just a small portion of the trail the league's general managers
must go through. Consider, for a moment, that only seven of the 16 playoff
teams (Utah, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, Portland, Cleveland and the
Los Angeles Lakers) have nine or more players signed. Ten of the remaining
22 teams have six players or less.
"It will be incredibly challenging . . . to put it mildly," another NBA source
said. "Not only do we not have our players, but we don't know what the rules
are so we can't prepare other than scout talent. A couple of weeks ago, I
never believed the season would be canceled, but now I don't know.
"It will take at least four weeks and maybe five just to be ready to play.
Once we know the rules, then we
have to go through the negotiation
process with all these players.
Then we have to bring them in, get
to know their teammates, and
then, everybody has to get in
shape to play basketball."
SO IF AND WHEN THE SEASON
DOES start, veteran teams with
exceptional talent like the Pacers,
Jazz, Lakers and Knicks
presumably will run roughshod
over the rest of the NBA. Can you
just imagine how many people will
show up in the LA Sports Arena to
watch the Clippers play host to
the Denver Nuggets? Think about it . . . the Clippers do have 10 players
signed. They just don't have a coach, and Michael Olowokandi, the top pick
of the draft and the Clippers' center of the future, already is contemplating an
offer to play in Turkey.
Monday, former superstar point guard Isiah Thomas, who also was partial
owner and president of the Toronto Raptors, went off on Hunter and Ewing,
saying they should be replaced. True or not, consider Thomas' conflict of
interest. He is an analyst for NBC and is clearly under Stern's sphere of
influence. As for his background as NBPA president from 1990-94, he had a
collective bargaining agreement signed before he became president and it
didn't have to be redone until a year after his presidency had ended.
Then again, the question looms large whether Hunter and Ewing can get a
deal done. Ewing has indeed been a zero, making ignorant comments about
how they can't live on the money of the deals the NBA is discussing when
he's making $20 million or so a year. He also has been horrible with the
media for nearly his entire career and required Herb Williams to be there
throughout these negotiations to serve as his conduit.
MEANWHILE, HUNTER HAS BEEN brilliant at galvanizing the players and
standing up to Stern, which nobody has done since the late Larry Fleisher in
1988. That said, the lockout has begun its sixth month in the first work
stoppage ever in the NBA, and Thursday will begin negotiations as the most
important day in league history.
Will they now take the gloves off and stick with it until a deal is struck?
"It's all pretty obvious now," a GM said. "In order for Hunter to do a deal
quickly before the season, he had to get a great deal from the NBA, and
that wasn't going to happen. Then he had to put the gloves on with David
and he has. But you've got to believe the players are at the point now . . .
'Please Billy, let's land this puppy. Let's land this puppy now.'"
There's not much choice now. The big dogs will be at the table Thursday,
hopefully for the duration. It has nothing to do with who gets in the last bark.
They're all in the doghouse and they've run out of time and space.
___________________________________________________________
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